Well, I decided to buckle down and venture out to the beach despite the rain. I walked along a dune trail and lucky for me it didn’t really rain while I was there, just misted and sea sprayed at me. It was still pretty in a grey, stormy, choppy water kind of way. Here are a couple of pictures I took while I was walking.



(and a little bird with a really long beak!)



Brian ended up getting home early. We spent the afternoon at Willowbank nature preserve. They had mostly a collection of random animals that had been brought into various zoos and parts of NZ. It was a pretty motley collection actually. We saw some native NZ animals like kea and kiwi. Here are the highlights of the crazy animals we saw. Most of the animals just wanted us to give them food.



An ostrich that chomped on my finger (no harm done).



A wallaby (they’re marsupials, like kangaroos, and this one actually had a little baby in her pouch!)



Notice that little deer is on the same side of the fence as I am. That’s because she jumped the fence to rip the empty food bag out of my hand and eat it! Luckily it was paper so she'll be ok, but I was shocked the little lady jumped the fence and stole the bag!

Brian and I have a running joke that I brought my own paparazzi to NZ with me. He’s always taking to pictures and there aren’t any with him in them!

Hi to Ivory’s study group! Ivory, I bought you a shot glass today and it is going to crack you up!